DISQUS

johnbelkins · 4 months ago

I am a college freshman. I have had three years of Chinese in highschool. I know some Mandarin and i am taking college Chinese classes. I am familiar with many of the rules of Chinese grammar and writing. Although I only know the basics of the Chinese Language I would be happy to help in any way I can

L · 4 months ago

is that number one language or just number one population using the internet?

they could be accessing English sites from all over the place.

if you add USA, UK and Aus, it is almost as many people, and there is still other English speakign countries.

but then again, they could be all accessing Chinese sites..

need a stronger case to translate number of users to languages used.

but i am all for translation!! dont get me wrong.

just when ppl use statistics, they should be more careful.

liang · 4 months ago

I think this could be something that'll help people in china. The difficulty of it may not be in the actual translation of the materials as how to revise it so that it's more culturally relevant. For instance, the title of the book "Don't waste your life" was translated into "Live out passion." I may be off on this, in trips back to visit, I haven't heard/seen much of a cultural theme of people wanting to live more passionately - it doesn't have the same draw "don't waste your life" does to someone growing up in the American culture. It is a very different culture, with different values, where some things (such as bootleg everything - medicine, movies, clothes) is the norm and truth for its own sake is not valued nearly as much as in America (but saving face, not just for an individual, but for your whole family, is valued). Some examples used in articles or sermons will be lost in translation, not because of poor translation, but very stark cultural differences, which I'm sure you guys will take into account.

Joy · 4 months ago

This is great news! Those of us who have longed for our Chinese brothers and sisters to grow through Pastor Piper's teaching and DG ministry rejoice at this news. 加油中文翻译弟兄姐妹！

cci1615 · 4 months ago

I am an American Expat living in China. This is very exciting yet challenging. I am all for this so my only advice is ensure culture is taken into account. More resources are needed but there are many already available, both underground and legally. The biggest need of face to face interaction (aka: mentoring and discipleship). Chinese intellectuals, the ones I am interacting with, read and taken in a lot of information. Yet they lack application. China is broad and so are those in need of resources you will eventually publish for them. It's never one size fits all.

Kim Olley · 4 months ago

May I point out that 'Mandarin' is a spoken language. There is only one written language in Chinese, which is CHINESE. Taiwanese and the older generation of Chinese speak 'Mandarin', but people from mainland call it 'Putonghua'. The texts, or characters used in the Chinese language exist in the form of 'traditional Chinese' and 'simplified Chinese'. The older generation Chinese would prefer to read from 'traditional Chinese'. People from China, S.E. Asia, foreign Chinese scholars in modern times are only taught to read texts in 'simplified' versions. I agree with Liang's observation of true meaning being lost in translation due to cultural differences. I also observe that this often is due to ignorance of the basic principles of translation as well as ignorance of the nuances of the English/American English language. I am speaking as an experienced and professional translator. Pray for this ministry and may God help the team to bring glory to God.

Peter Chiu · 4 months ago

Kim, your comments indicate your knowledge about the CHINESE/Mandarin. Maybe you should involve and play the role as a trainer for this future team of translators, to share your experience as a proffesional translator for His glory.

carmen · 4 months ago

This is WONDERFUL news. I am working in Taiwan and would loooooove to have more DesiringGod resources to share with brothers and sisters here. Indeed, the only thing I've seen so far has been DWYL (personally, btw, I think the chosen cover image was not a great fit... blue skies and kids jumping happily through the air doesn't quite match with the intensity of the message).

Once you have the simplified, please consider translating into traditional Chinese as well, since the 23 million living on this island read only traditional, and as another commentor mentioned, that is the preference of the older generation even in mainland China also. And in Hong Kong.

Wish I could offer my services to help, but my Chinese leaves MUCH to be desired... I'll spread the word, though!